In conventional information processing apparatuses such as a word processor, computer, and graphic data creating apparatus, infomation inputting is generally carried out through a keyboard. The operation of infomation inputting through keyboard is hereinafter referred to as key inputting. In such information processing apparatus, when the editing is carried out with respect to an object such as a document, it has been done in the following manner: first, an editing point or editing area is specified by moving a cursor responsive to a key operation; and thereafter a desired editing process is carried out through further key operations. Nowadays, other than the foregoing information processing apparatuses, apparatus is known which can carry out coordinate inputting by directly pointing a screen by means of a coordinate inputting-use pen, and can carry out inputting of character with respect to the screen. Such apparatus is hereinafter generally referred to as a pen input processing apparatus.
The following description deals with an example wherein inputting of characters by handwriting is carried out by the use of the above-mentioned pen input processing apparatus which can input the information that is directly handwritten on the screen. Such inputting of information by directly handwriting it on the screen hereinafter referred to as inputting by handwriting.
As shown in FIG. 16, for example, when a word "very" is added before the word "fine" of a sentence "It is fine today.", first a cursor 52 of the end of the sentence on a screen 51 of FIG. 16(a) is moved to the position of character "f" through means such as a key and pen as shown in FIG. 16(b). Thereafter, when a handwriting button 54, in a guidance area 53 which is provided in the lower portion of the screen 51, is pressed, an inputting board 55 for handwriting appears, as shown in FIG. 16(c), on an upper side of the guidance area 53. So, when the word "very" is handwritten in a window 56 in the inputting board 55, the word "very" is added before the word "fine" in the sentence.
There are pen input processing apparatuses which can carry out the inputting by handwriting by a so-called gesture function for editing the sentence and other objects in accordance with an instruction which is directly handwritten on the screen. Such pen input processing apparatus stores a plurality of commands for a variety of editing processes so as to correspond to line drawings having respective unique shapes. When a line drawing is made as an instruction on the screen through an instrument such as a pen, the command corresponding to the shape of the line drawing is recognized so as to carry out the editing process accordingly.
However, in the case where the above-mentioned inputting of characters by handwriting is carried out, it is necessary (1) to operate so as to specify the position of the cursor 52; and (2) to operate the handwriting button 54 so as to display the inputting board 55. Such case presents a problem that the cursor 52 and the handwriting button 54 are not simple to operate since they are far away from each other.
In the pen input processing apparatus which can edit in accordance with handwritten instructions, the user is not informed as a routine (1) whether or not the command for editing is correctly inputted and (2) whether or not the inputted command is recognized in accordance with the user's intentions. Thus, the user can not verify until the editing process is over whether or not the inputted command is correctly recognized. Namely, the user can verify only by comparing the displayed content of before editing with that of after editing whether or not the inputted line drawing corresponded to the intended command.
Since each editing function corresponds to each unique shape of line drawing, it is required to prepare a number of line drawings which coincides with that of possible editing functions. So, when the number of the editing functions increases, line drawings are adopted which may have respective unmemorable and complicated shapes, thereby forcing the user to study more in order to handle well the respective editing functions. Additionally, when the number of the line drawings increases, the recognizing processes become more complicated accordingly, thereby causing the recognition speed and recognition ratio to be lower.
In the conventional information processing apparatus which can edit by both the inputting by handwriting and the key inputting, the key inputting is available during carrying out of the editing process in accordance with the handwritten input. Accordingly, the key inputting may cause incorrect edits during editing in accordance with the handwritten input. More specifically, in a case where a space should be inserted during editing process, when the user imprudently touches a key, another processing such as deleting of one character may interrupt the main processing, thereby changing the editing contents.
The following description points out other problems of the conventional pen input processing apparatus. In the conventional pen input processing apparatus, in a case where a graphic and frame on the screen are specified by a pen, the fact that (1) a pen-down and (2) a deflection of the pen are simultaneously done is mistakenly regarded as having received an instruction to drag (moving operation), with the result that the frame and graphic on the screen delicately moves. This is because the pen-down and pen-up are carried out at the same one point and such difficulty is not considered in specifying a point with the pen.
More specifically, in a circle of FIG. 17 (a), it is assumed that a hatched line should be changed into a broken line. In such case, as shown in FIG. 17(c), a circle is specified with a pen 62. Thereafter, as shown in FIGS. 17(d) and 17(e), the following operation is generally carried out, i.e., the kind of hatching is changed in accordance with a function or an icon. However, under the conventional environment, when the circle is specified with the pen, as shown in FIG. 17(f), the pen is deflected such that the pen-down and pen-up operations are not made at the same one point, thereby frequently resulting in that the specified circle moves from the original location.